Kyle Busch was in the right place at the right time on Sunday night on the dirt covered Bristol Motor Speedway.
He was running in third place on the final lap when leaders Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe tangled in the final turn while fighting for the win. As both cars spun, Busch powered his No. 18 Toyota past the scene to steal the victory.
“Yeah, we backed into that one didn’t we,” said Busch. “Sure feels good just to get a win. It’s been a little bit of a long time here, but overall, just a great day. Really appreciate – just proud of the guys. They work hard. We all work hard. We all work way too hard. There’s not a lot of rewards in the sport except winning. You could come home with a second-place day and not get everything that you wanted from the day and from what you put into it. It’s always good when you win.”
It’s the first win of the season for Busch, and the 60th career win of his series career. It’s also his 18th straight season with a victory, tying NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty on the all-time list.
“The biggest thing was just trying to stay in contention,” Busch said after scoring the second win on the season for Joe Gibbs Racing. “Those restarts were really helpful when you had an outside restart. When we come back, we need to somehow figure out how to do a choose rule because you just get burned on the inside. Overall, I think that was the biggest thing we learned. There were definitely some things we could improve on.”
For most of the second half of the race, Busch spent most of his time chasing Reddick, trying time and again to find a way to take the lead while also holding Joey Logano at bay.
The two battled for the lead around the half-mile dirt covered track through several cautions and a second red flag for rain with about 28 laps to go. Showers had also brought a halt to the action under the red flag at the end of the second segment for a little over an hour.
Track officials worked hard to get the dirt surface back race ready, and when the race resumed, Reddick again jumped to the lead with Busch in tow.
Meanwhile, Briscoe charged his way through the field. After leading early, Briscoe spun from the lead on lap 50 with a cut tire. He would come back to win the race’s second segment, but pit strategy had him working to come back through the pack during the final 100 laps of the race.
Following the second red flag for rain, Briscoe powered his way to second, and began working to close on Reddick for the lead.
As the duo race through lapped traffic on the final lap, Briscoe was able to close on Reddick and made a move to take the lead going into turn three. They made contact in turn four, sending both spinning. As Reddick attempted to get his car righted, Busch was able to speed by and get to the checkered flag first.
“I think the 14 (Briscoe) was arguably the best car,” Busch said. “He ran down the 8 (Reddick) there at the end. It’s just so hard to pass once you get into that rhythm. That right rear in that sticky up top. It’s hard to out accelerate that off the corner with momentum or anything from the bottom of the racetrack. I knew if there was going to be a move being made it was going to be contact being made with how aggressive I know Reddick is as well. Again, just kept myself in the game. It reminded me of Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin at California. Sometimes the seas part ways and you get one, so I’ll take it.”
Reddick finished in second, but had no hard feelings for Briscoe in regards to the last lap move to try to take the win.
“I don’t think I did everything right, to be honest with you. Briscoe was able to run me back down there. Just looking at it, I should have done a little bit better job of just – I don’t know. I shouldn’t have let him get that close. He ran me back down. Worked really hard to do that.”
For his part, Briscoe, who ended up 22nd in the final run down, came to apologize to Reddick during a post-race interview for the contact.
“Obviously, Tyler and me have raced enough with each other,” said Briscoe. “Both of us know we’re not gonna wreck each other or do something stupid on purpose, and that was just a racing deal. We were both going for a win. Both of us dirt guys. There’s a lot of pride in being the guy that wins the dirt race and it’s unfortunate. I hate that neither of us won, but I think Tyler understood and he was really cool about it and said he would have tried the exact same thing. He said it was his fault for letting me even get there in the first place.”
Logano followed in third, but looked for a while to have a chance to defend his win in last year’s Bristol dirt race.
“We’ll take that,” Logano said. “We weren’t fast enough obviously to win. We had great execution on restarts and kept ourselves towards the front. Paul (Andrews, crew chief) made a good call leaving us out. The tire was coming apart there at the end, but we did what we had to do to stay towards the front. Track position was so big. It’s so hard to pass and I felt like if I could just get towards the front, I could try to hold them all off and that’s what we did with our Mustang.”
Kyle Larson, who won the first segment of the race, came home in fourth, with Ryan Blaney in fifth.
Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell, Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell, and Ty Dillon rounded out the top 10.
NASCAR Cup Series
Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt – Bristol, TN
Food City Dirt Race – April 17, 2022
1. (11) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 250.
2. (3) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 250.
3. (10) Joey Logano, Ford, 250.
4. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 250.
5. (25) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 250.
6. (8) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 250.
7. (2) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 250.
8. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 250.
9. (17) Michael McDowell, Ford, 250.
10. (7) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 250.
11. (18) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 250.
12. (21) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 250.
13. (1) Cole Custer, Ford, 250.
14. (6) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 250.
15. (15) Chris Buescher, Ford, 250.
16. (20) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 250.
17. (23) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 250.
18. (19) William Byron, Chevrolet, 250.
19. (26) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 250.
20. (24) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 250.
21. (30) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 250.
22. (4) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 250.
23. (31) Aric Almirola, Ford, 250.
24. (14) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 250.
25. (36) Josh Williams(i), Ford, 250.
26. (35) Cody Ware, Ford, 250.
27. (28) Noah Gragson(i), Chevrolet, 248.
28. (22) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 245.
29. (16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 240.
30. (29) J.J. Yeley(i), Ford, Accident, 221.
31. (12) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 211.
32. (13) Kurt Busch, Toyota, Accident, 211.
33. (33) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Engine, 150.
34. (32) Kevin Harvick, Ford, Accident, 100.
35. (34) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Engine, 91.
36. (27) Justin Allgaier(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 74.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 34.973 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 34 Mins, 27 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.330 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 14 for 82 laps.
Lead Changes: 6 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Custer 0;C. Briscoe 1-48;K. Larson 49-75;D. Suarez 76-139;C. Briscoe 140-150;T. Reddick 151-249;K. Busch 250.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Tyler Reddick 1 time for 99 laps; Daniel Suarez 1 time for 64 laps; Chase Briscoe 2 times for 59 laps; Kyle Larson 1 time for 27 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,42,20,3,18,48,22,8,12,47
Stage #2 Top Ten: 14,20,99,9,18,5,22,34,12,8
Playoff Standings: 1. William Byron – 295 (2 Wins); 2. Alex Bowman – 273 (1 Win); 3. Kyle Busch – 273 (1 Win); 4. Ross Chastain – 250 (1 Win); 5. Kyle Larson – 249 (1 Win); 6. Chase Briscoe – 245 (1 Win); 7. Austin Cindric – 222 (1 Win); 8. Denny Hamlin – 159 (1 Win); 9. Chase Elliott – 324; 10. Ryan Blaney – 321; 11. Joey Logano – 303; 12. Martin Truex, Jr. – 253; 13. Tyler Reddick – 241; 14. Aric Almirola – 237; 15. Kevin Harvick – 225; 16. Christopher Bell – 220.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
http://accesswdun.com/article/2022/4/1095248/kyle-busch-steals-the-victory-on-bristol-dirt-track